Trip to Detroit, May 2009

What a very pleasant surprise when I received the request to speak to the Brotherhood of Saint Moses in Detroit MI. I still cannot believe that I was actually asked to speak to them. Who am I? When I look around me and see people like Wayne Frazier of MWMCA and Dr. Ben Carson of Johns Hopkins Hospital, I am simply amazed. Now I tell other black men that if I can do it, they can also do it.

I will admit that I have been extremely fortunate. It is no secret that in high school I was the only black student in many of my classes and we had about 30 students in a classroom. In college I was the only black male on campus for two of my four years there and we had a student population of approximately 2,000. In college and in the seminary I was only an average student. I have a friend in my parish who has two doctorate degrees. Her older son is 12. She had both doctorate degrees at an earlier age than I earned my master's degree.

I left home around 7:00 on Saturday morning and was at the airport in plenty of time for my 9:10 flight. This is my second time flying since 9-11 and I was nervous. But I did well. I had trouble with the machines at first, but with a little help, I made it. I checked my baggage because I thought that it was too big to fit. They had a display which indicated the maximum size that one's baggage could be and mine was over it, but not by much. When I got to the gate, I noticed that other passengers had larger bags than I had. So on the way home I did not check my baggage. I think that it is obscene that we have to pay to have our baggage checked.

On the plane I sat between two women. One slept most of the time and the other was a young delightful Korean woman, Jien and she was a very interesting individual. She was returning home for the summer. She is a student at Johns Hopkins University. I forgot what her major is. When she returns to Baltimore in September, I hope that she will teach me some Korean and I will teach her how to play chess.

When I arrived in Detroit, I immediately went to baggage claim. Fr. Roman was there waiting for me. He was dressed in cassock and I was dressed in a suit. As a rule, I do not wear a cassock on the streets because I have been mistaken for a Muslim on several occasions. In a suit, I have been taken for a Roman Catholic priest, but I would prefer that.

After I arrived at the motel, I took a nap for two hours. Latoya upgraded me to a room with a whilrpool bath because my room was not yet ready and it would be another 30 minutes or so before it would be ready. The motel was wonderful and I slept well. I wish that I had brought my laptop with me. But the hard drive seems to have a few problems and I need to have Jerry Stern of Science Translations look at it. I did not bring it also because I did not want to have too much luggage. Naturally, I brought both of my Nikon D50 cameras. I left the Canon Rebel home.

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